EU Exit

Report by Rod Ainsworth For further information contact Rod Ainsworth on 07768602495 Email: Rod.Ainsworth@food.gov.uk

1. Summary

1.1 The main purpose of this paper is to record to the Business Committee the substantial completion of the FSA’s Programme of work to prepare for the UK’s Exit from the EU. The paper also explains the way in which the various Programme outcomes are being dealt with, in light of the continuing delay to the UK’s EU Exit.

2. Evidence and Discussion

2.1 As the annexed slide illustrates, each of the workstreams within the FSA’s EU Exit Programme had reached a satisfactory conclusion before 29 March 2019 so that had the UK left the EU on that date, the FSA’s overriding objective – ensuring that there would be an effective food safety regime in place for the protection of UK consumers (whatever the terms of the UK’s departure) – had been achieved.

2.2 The Programme Team worked with colleagues across the FSA to ensure that prior to 29 March all of the work preparing for Exit – the creation or enhancement of systems and processes and the recruitment of new FSA officials to increase our capacity in key areas – had been integrated into the ongoing day to day work of the organisation, so that by the time of Exit, our preparations could form part of “business as usual”.

2.3 Having reached that stage, and notwithstanding the continuing delay to the UK’s Exit, the decision was taken that the work of the EU Exit Programme itself was finished. A decision will be taken as to the appropriate way to approach future EU Exit-related work – whether to have a new Programme, or some other approach – in the light of future developments.

2.4 In the meantime, all of the work carried out under the EU Exit Programme, and the Programme outcomes, have been reviewed. They will be treated in one of three ways:

- “Banked”: some outcomes, for example the organisational changes to create separate Science and Policy Directorates, and the development of a full-function Food Crime Unit, are measures the FSA would have wanted to take at some stage in any event and it would make no sense to contemplate “undoing” them. These features of the FSA now form part of the organisation for the future, regardless of the eventual relationship between the UK and the EU; • “Put on the shelf”: some measures – the programme of “no deal” Statutory Instruments (SIs) is an example – are not needed at the moment but might be in future, depending on events in the UK and the outcome of negotiations with the EU. They will be held in readiness in case they are necessary;

• “Keep warm”: some preparations – the best example is the FSA’s emergency response readiness – might need to be re-activated at short notice, again depending on how other matters progress. The FSA must avoid allowing its state of readiness to grow too stale, or knowledge of its processes to dissipate. Although the teams who were involved have been “stood down”, there will be regular checks to ensure that we can escalate our readiness again very rapidly should we need to.

2.5 In addition to the above, work is continuing, at the request of the Cabinet Office, further to develop the UK Framework for Food and Feed Safety, and to respond to requests from other Departments working on various parts of their own EU Exit Preparations. Given ongoing uncertainties we have so far held off commencing any thorough “lessons learned” exercises, (although this will undoubtedly be undertaken in due course) but we have already, within the Executive team, committed to seek to build some of the successful features of the FSA’s approach to EU Exit into our continuing work. We have, over the last two years, learned new ways of working together across the FSA. We are keen not to “unlearn” them.

Rod Ainsworth Director of Strategy, Legal and Governance June 2019 | Imports | Apr – Jun 18 | Jul – Sep 18 | Oct – Dec 18 | Jan – Mar 19 | Day 1 Ready | |---------|--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|-------------| | Changes to business processes for import controls identified | Pre-Notification (EU high risk products) principles agreed & Govt | Recruitment for additional FSA capacity started | Resource available to ensure parts of FSA to deliver new processes | Start calls for Pre-Notification confirmed by DEFRA | Industry / Officials understand changes required from Day 1 & beyond | Additional FSA imports capacity in place | Systems and processes for MVP in place | Law is ready to encourage import control regime | | Incidents | Solution being for handling food alerts started | Recruitment for additional capacity started | Substitution strategy implemented | Start calls for Pre-Notification confirmed by DEFRA | Solution in place for handling food alerts | Additional FSA incidents capacity in place | Roles and responsibilities clear for incident handling | Law is ready to enable incident response / action | | Legal Consents | Inoperabilities identified | Fitting M’s Drafted (seconds through to Sec) | Consultations started | Parliamentary process started | Consultations complete | Parliamentary process complete | Law is ready to undertake regulatory regime from Day 1 | | Risk Assmt | Day 1 Lab capacity in place | Recruitment for additional FSA capacity started | Additional FSA RA capacity in place | Scientific committees expanded | Risk Communication methods agreed | Risk Assmt Principles in place | Law is ready to undertake RA responsibilities | | Risk Mgmt | XConf agreement to new premises | Ministerial response to new premises | Shadow Regulatory Roles established | Governance for decision making developed | Process for decision making agreed | Resources in place to undertake new responsibilities | FSA Board Agreement to Governance & Process | Food Safety RM Forum Operational (in shadow form) | Law is ready to undertake RA responsibilities | | Surv/Jan Co | Specific case studies agreed | Methods & processes in place | Case studies completed | Successful outcomes operationalized | | Enhance Reg | Discovery complete | Alpha complete | Private Beta Phase | Initial Delivery Agents understand requirements | Enhanced Reg System in use (18/05) | | NFCU | HMIT approved business case | FSA Board Approval | NFCU Recruitment Launch | Senior Management recruited | Middle Management recruited | Staff Trained | Case Management System Live (16 April) | Law ready to allow full range of activity | | Exports | New risks Mark agreed by FSA | INTRINIS consultation with Industry | Plan in place for listing premises with EC | Consultation on health marks complete | Industry / Officials understand requirements | Reprocessed meat stamps issued |

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